4/3 camera coming. Don't touch it.
Already, Panasonic is coming out with a 4/3 inch camera, which is roughly the same dimensions as a 35mm target. It will use film lenses, it will have XLR inputs. It will probably shoot on SDHC cards... and probably be a Red killer.
It's been going this way for a while. That's why I've been trying to dump off my personal XHA1 for a while now. I need to get the money out on that and hold for another 18 months, when the new standard camera comes out, blows down the whole professional market, and starts all over again.
It will be, effectively, the 'poor man's Red.'
And it will be something that bridges film and video.
People will be using it for real productions, independent films, and your good Discovery Channel fare.
Currently, I wouldn't touch any new incarnation, either an EX3, a Red, or a 5DmII at any time right now. I'm never going to buy some goofy Zacuto rig to make a 5D into a frankencamera. It's insane to do that.
Something is coming.
It will be a combo camera, and it will have balanced audio, 35 spherical lenses, a built in viewfinder, and it will record to regular flash media. The first one who finally takes this staring contest down, and does it, will win hands down, much in the same way that there is only one smart phone in the world, and it belongs to Apple, because they MADE the market.
The Canon video and Canon Stills departments, who never spoke together, are now having meetings. Scuttlebutt is flying. Canon will probably do this, because it will hook a whole new generation of filmmakers and corporate videographers on buying Canon lenses... thus making Canon's 'bread and butter' more money.
If you don't think it's going to happen, think about the money that corporations, regular camera corporations that don't have a dog in the video market like Sony can make ground on them. In other words, the small film and semi-professional market is about four times as large as the pro market. There is money there.
Canon is the likeliest one to win this, now that they have the sensor, the viewfinder tech, and the lenses to pull this off, already in a patented format.
I'm not buying another thing for a year until this camera comes out.